Dried cherry cheesecake muffins

I've recently bought dried cherries. They are not so often available in here. At first I didn't have a clue how use them. They were so tasty. Luckily I came across interesting recipe in a 'Easy muffins' cook book. They were called cheesecake muffins ... . As a result we had spongy, not too moist, sweet, really tasty muffins packed with dried cherries. We enjoyed them very much. I truly recommend them.    

 Ingredients for 12 - 14 standard size muffins or 24 - 28 small ones:

• 200g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150g butter
• 300g self - rising flour
• 100g dried cherries

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. 

Melt the butter and set aside to cool down.

Chop the cherries and mix them with flour, set aside.

In a big bowl mix the sugar and cream cheese. Then add the eggs one at a time. Pour in the melted and cooled butter. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Mix all ingredients together until just combined.

Spoon the batter into paper cases, about 3/4 full. Bake about 20 minutes until the muffins are golden on the top. 

Enjoy !

Polish recipe 

Almond cupcakes with sour cherries and chocolate chips

These muffins are sweet, moist, chewy as they are full of chocolate chips, sour cherries and almonds. This is Cynitha Barcomi recipe, but I made small change in it and I think this change affected as well taste and appearance of those muffins. Because my children do not like nut chunks I replaced almond chunks with ground almonds. That is way those muffins did not rise high and they were sinking in the muffin wraps. I can not complain about their taste though. We all liked them and they disappeared very quickly.

Ingredients for 12-18 muffins:

• 365g flour
• 100g sugar
• 1 tsp soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 250 ml buttermilk
• 80 ml oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 60g ground almonds (originally chopped and roasted almonds)
• 100g dark chocolate chips
• 50g porridge oats
• 200g fresh or frozen, pitted sour cherries
• some almond flakes to sprinkle on the top

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Defrost the cherries if you use the frozen ones. Remove the stones if you use the fresh cherries.

In a small bowl combine together the chocolate chips, porridge oats, almonds and set aside.

In a measuring jar with a fork whisk the eggs, then add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla and whisk them together. Set aside.

In a big bowl whisk the flour, sugar, soda and salt. Pour in the wet ingredients add the chocolate and almond mixture and combine all ingredients together. The batter is very thick. At last but not at least fold in the sour cherries.

Spoon the batter into baking cases, 3/4 full. Sprinkle top of each muffin with almond flakes. Bake them about 20 minutes until slightly risen and spongy in a touch. 

They are very tasty warm and cooled down. 

 

Cherry cup cakes

I have been wondering which recipe to try first since I bought new cook book 'Cake days. Recipes to make every day special. The hummingbird bakery'. As I had a half jar of stewed cherries I decided to bake cherry cupcakes with frosting. Cupcakes were lovely but the frosting ... Well, something went wrong. Usually I make frosting and creams and they not are only tasty but look good as well. This time the frosting is tasty but it does not look nice. Maybe there was something wrong with the butter I used.  I think I will try this recipe again without frosting but, knowing myself, I will continue trying until I will achieve the perfect frosting.

Ingredients for 7 cupcakes:

• 40g unsalted butter
• 140g caster sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 120 ml milk
• 70g alcohol soaked cherries

 Frosting:

• 125g powder sugar
• 40g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp milk
• 40g alcohol soaked cherries

Day before baking drain the cherries, place them in a bowl and pour alcohol over them as they are covered. Leave them over night. Before baking drain the cherries and chop them into small pieces. 

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.

Using electric mixer beat the butter, caster sugar, flour, baking powder, salt together on low speed until the ingredients are well incorporated and resemble fine breadcrumbs. In a meantime in separate bowl whisk the egg with fork, pour milk and combine them together. Pour half of this mixture to dry ingredients and mix in, on low speed scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add  the rest of the milk and beat again until the batter is smooth. With a spoon stir in the cherries. Divide  the batter evenly among paper cases. Bake for 25 min. Check with toothpick if bake in the middle. Cool down on wire rack.

To make frosting place the butter and sugar in electric mixer bowl and whisk them together on a low speed until sandy in consistency. Then gently add the milk. Once the milk is added increase the speed to high and whisk the frosting  until  light and fluffy. Gently, by hand fold in the cherries. 

Spread the frosting on top of each cooled down cup cake.  

Oat muffins with sour cherries covered with chocolate

This time I baked oat muffins, slightly changing recipe from this website. I called them oat muffins as they contain porridge oats. Those muffins were moisture, sweet and sour at the same time. 

Ingredients for 15 muffins:

• 200g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 60g porridge oats
• 150g powder/icing sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 220g drained pitted sour cherries + few for decoration
• 2 egg whites
• 200g buttermilk
• 150g melted butter

Heat up the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with muffin cases.

In a big bowl put dry ingredients : the flour, baking powder, porridge oats, sugar, cinnamon and combine them together.

Melt the butter, add buttermilk, egg whites, vanilla and whisk them together. Pour this mixture into dry ingredients. Combine all ingredients. Fold in the cherries. Spoon into paper cases 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 min. Check with tooth pick if batter is baked in the middle. Cool them down on wire rack.

For a chocolate cover:

• 50 ml milk.
• 50 ml cream
• 100g dark chocolate

Put cream and milk into sause pan and bring it to boil. Add chopped chocolate and stir as long as all chocolate melts down. You will receive thick, chocolaty cream called ganache. With a spoon pour gently ganache over the top of each muffin and place the cherry in the middle.

Enjoy !